Israeli soccer clubs extend winning streaks, advance to third round of European qualifying

The first leg will take place next Thursday in Batumi, while the second leg will be played the following week in Bulgaria. Should head coach Kenny Miller’s team advance to the playoff round, it will be guaranteed at least a place in the Conference League.

Kenny Miller said after the match: “I would have preferred it to end 5-0, that’s for sure. We knew it would be a night where we’d have to see how Sheriff would come out and what their approach would be. But from our side, we focused heavily on our energy and mentality. We wanted to come into this game with the right attitude, even though we had a five-goal lead from the first leg. We wanted to win the game, and we did that.”

“We could have won by a bigger margin if we had shown a bit more quality in the final third,” the Tel Aviv bench boss continued. “There’s some frustration that we didn’t score more goals and that we weren’t better, but we won and advanced to the next round. When you look at this competition, there aren’t many teams that win 6-0 on aggregate over two legs. There are no easy games in Europe, and we have to be pleased with the final result.”

Defender Raz Shlomo also reflected after the match.

“It was very important for us to come into this game with the right approach despite the result of the first leg. We wanted to win, keep the positive momentum we’ve built since the start of the season, and maintain maximum focus. I’m happy we did that and kept another clean sheet. That’s something that gives us a lot of confidence as a team going forward.”

After a 1-0 win in the first leg in Cyprus, the second leg of the two-legged tie moved to Ploiesti, Romania, where the Jerusalem-based club will play its European home matches due to the security situation in Israel.

AEK opened the scoring with a penalty by Hrvoje Milicevic after a handball by Boris Enow allowed the Cypriots to take a 1-0 lead. However, just before the break, Omer Atzily was pulled down in the box and converted from the penalty spot to send the teams into halftime tied at 1-1. AEK regained the lead early in the second half when Milicevic scored on a brilliant free kick over the Beitar wall to give his side a 2-1 advantage in the 52nd minute.

As the match looked to be headed for a 30-minute overtime period, Atzily unleashed a scorching strike from 30 meters out to give the yellow-and-black a 3-2 aggregate lead in the 87th minute. But in injury time, Beitar goalkeeper Miguel Silva fumbled the ball, allowing Riad Bajic to pounce and level the aggregate score at 3-3, sending the match to extra time.

Following 30 minutes of scoreless extra time, the match went to penalties as Beitar converted its first four attempts, with the final one coming from Timoti Muzie, while Silva made two key saves in the shootout to send the yellow-and-black into the next round of qualifying.

Almog Cohen summed up the victory.

“It’s a very important win. I think we played an excellent match against a team that today showed its experience in these competitions. It ended in the sweetest way possible. Before the match, I talked about what I believe is the most important quality for a football player. I really gave it a lot of thought, and I told them it’s courage. Because at the end of the day, when someone loses the ball, they need the courage to come back and ask for it again. When you miss a shot, you need the courage to take another one. I reminded them of that and told them, ‘I’m behind you 100%, no matter what happens here.’ I said, ‘Remember when I told you that you need courage? Well, this is our courage, to respond after conceding a goal by playing with complete confidence and belief, and to go on and win this game.’”

Also, Hapoel Tel Aviv moved into the third round of UEFA Conference League qualifying after drawing 2-2 with Ludogorets as Emmanuel Boateng scored a brace to help the Reds advance with a 4-2 aggregate victory.

Boateng opened the scoring by slotting home an Omri Altman pass in the 16th minute. However, goals by Bernard Tekpetey and Alberto Salido early in the second half gave the Bulgarians a 2-1 lead.

But Altman again sparked the attack, finding Roie Alkukin, who sent the ball into the middle of the box, where Boateng turned and slammed it into the back of the net to level the match at 2-2 and send Hapoel into the next round, where it will face Katowice.

Head coach Elyaniv Barda said: “I always believed. We had the second-toughest draw possible in this competition, and their UEFA coefficient proves that as well. I’m very happy that we managed to overcome a very high-quality team. We saw it during the spell when everything clicked for them, and they scored two goals in seven minutes, but we also knew how to respond and show great character on a difficult pitch against a truly top-quality side.

“Winning 4-2 on aggregate over the two matches is a tremendous achievement, and the players deserve immense credit, especially for their level of commitment. We still have a lot of things to improve, and we can play even better than we did in both this match and the previous one. In terms of commitment, the players gave 100%, and they deserve enormous praise for that.”

Boateng, who scored a brace, said after the match: “It feels amazing to beat such a strong team. We won the first match as well, and we came into this game very well prepared. We knew it was going to be extremely difficult, but we worked very hard as a team, and we deserve to advance to the next round.”